FARC rebels voluntarily free 4 Colombian hostages

Former hostage, police officer Alexis Torres, gives a thumb up in Villavicencio, Colombia, after he was released by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009. Colombia's FARC rebels handed over three police officers and a soldier to the International Red Cross in a mission marred by accusations of military interference. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
— AP

Former hostage, police officer Alexis Torres, gives a thumb up in Villavicencio, Colombia, after he was released by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009. Colombia's FARC rebels handed over three police officers and a soldier to the International Red Cross in a mission marred by accusations of military interference. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
/ AP

BOGOTA 
Colombia's battered FARC rebels freed three police officers and a soldier held hostage for more than a year, handing them over to the International Red Cross on Sunday in the country's southern jungles.

A Brazilian military helicopter, emblazoned with the Red Cross insignia, retrieved the four hostages and flew them to a provincial airport in Colombia's eastern plains where they were met by relatives and peace activists with hugs and white daisies.

But their handover was marred by accusations that Colombia's military interfered. A reporter who was accompanied the mission, Jorge Enrique Botero, said the military hounded and delayed the mission by more than two hours with numerous flyovers.

Analysts consider the unconditional releases, the guerrillas' first in nearly a year, a goodwill gesture. However, chances for a peace dialogue with Colombia's government remain far off, and Sunday's alleged military interference was only apt to complicate matters.

Colombia President Alvaro Uribe acknowledged the overflights, but said in a late-night news conference that no "offensive military operations" were mounted.

Uribe accused the rebels of using the hostage releases to cynically gain political advantage and he called the presence of Botero and other guarantors during Sunday's mission an inappropriate spectacle.

"The government can't permit terrorism to continue turning the pain of the kidnapped and their families into a party," Uribe said, adding that his government would bar guarantors from hostage pickups planned for Monday and Wednesday.

Captured by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2007, the four security-force members freed Sunday are among six hostages the FARC pledged to liberate unconditionally this week. The other two, the only Colombian politicians believed still in rebel hands, have been held far longer.

The Western Hemisphere's last rebel army has sought the overthrow of successive Colombian governments for 45 years, seeking to impose a leftist regime that they say would redistribute land more equitably.

Colombia's U.S.-backed military has seriously weakened the rebels in the past two years, killing top commanders, compelling hundreds of desertions with hefty rewards and forcing the rebels into virtual radio silence with sophisticated surveillance.

In a bloodless ruse on July 2, Colombian military agents posing as members of an international humanitarian mission rescued 15 hostages, including Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors.

The FARC announced this week's releases on Dec. 21 in response to a plea from Colombian intellectuals.

Uribe, however, has resisted FARC attempts to negotiate a prisoner swap. He has frequently been at odds with the opposition lawmaker who helped engineer these releases, Sen. Piedad Cordoba, a close ally of Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez.

FARC commander Alfonso Cano, meanwhile, has refused to renounce kidnapping, a key political and fundraising tool for the rebels. The guerrillas' main revenue source is the cocaine trade.

As Red Cross members picked up the hostages Sunday, the guerrilla commander who released them told the Venezuelan television network Telesur that the military killed a rebel in his unit earlier in the day.

The government's peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, did not directly deny the allegation, but said, "We are accustomed to the lies of the FARC."